http://thoughtsonthedead.com/on-the-propriety-of-punching-nazis-an-faq/

on god if i see one more of you clowns defend this dude for getting his dome split

Remember the words the Statue of Liberty comes from The New Collusus written by Emma Lazarus, a Jewish woman.

here is something i think people don’t understand, when they get all pearl-clutchy about nazis getting punched:

we – and by this i mean ‘people targeted by nazis’, but mostly jews, because i am a jew and that’s where my experience lies – we did not want to end up in a scenario where the highlight of our day could be some guy getting punched. in fact, that’s kind of ghoulish.

like, ok. i am pretty much the worst kind of bleeding-heart, dyed-in-the-wool pacifist you will ever meet, when circumstances allow me to be. i don’t, personally, want to kill nazis; i just want nazis to stop being nazis. ideally, the world would work like it did in my 10-year-old fantasies, where i could walk up to a nazi and be like “jews are people,” and he would be like “holy shit!!! mind blown” and stop being a nazi and we’d sit down and have a deep philosophical discussion.

but real nazis have this unfortunate, terrifying habit of continuing to be nazis. when you hit them with intellectual debate, or reason, or “tolerance”, or “just giving them a chance”, or “compromise”, or any of that shit. they continue to be nazis, which means they still want to wipe out me and my people, and many other swathes of people as well.

which is why i understand people who want to kill nazis. or, in a milder variation, punch them.

i wish they would stop being nazis but they wish i would die. when you, historically, adhere to an ideology that advocates mass murder past the point of any nonviolent resistance, you have forfeited your right to a fair debate. you have forfeited your right to any response but self-defense that is as violent as whatever you make necessary.

nazis forfeited their right to nice counter-tactics long ago, and jews know this.

there’s another reason, too, why i whooped at that video. not because someone was getting hurt – don’t be dense. as i said, that’s ghoulish. we did not want to end up with our livelihood as a people so threatened that violent self-defense makes us cheer. can you think about that for a second? can you think about the kind of corner we’re backed into, here? it’s not a natural state of being. it’s a place where most people, as far as we can tell, truly do not give a shit if we live or die, because they’re talking about “tolerating” people whose ideology involves straight-up killing us. and so if we see somebody punch a nazi, it’s evidence: that person in the black mask, they’re on my side.

there is one person who recognizes the nazi as a mortal threat, which means they recognize that jews are people. that people of color are people. that any of the groups threatened by nazis deserve to have their fear recognized.

and every time you, a moderate liberal, a white goy, wring your hands about a nazi getting punched, about violent tactics, about fighting hate with hate, you push us further and further into the corner where we have to cheer at that. it’s sheer relief, at somebody recognizing the terror enough to punch back.

so no, we weren’t born bloodthirsty, just salivating at the chance to kick a nazi in the balls. we got driven here reluctantly, by history, to a place where violence in our defense can make us weep with gratitude. you drove us here.

“we got driven here reluctantly, by history, to a place where violence in our defense can make us weep with gratitude” !!!!!!!!!

There are good reasons to not want to personally punch a Nazi in the face but let’s be clear, none of them are because a Nazi doesn’t deserve it.

I remain staunchly pro-choice on Nazi punching.

“Should I, personally, punch a Nazi right now?”  That’s up to you, whether or not you feel safe in doing so, your own personal beliefs on violent vs non-violent protest, etc.

“Should people, in general, punch Nazis?”  Yes.

if you are disabled or mentally ill and it’s not safe for you to punch nazis, your activism is still valid <3

I will point out though that you are not a bad anti-nazi if you’re not able to physically punch nazis. That carries a ton of risks, not only physical but legal/financial, and is best left to, uh, trained experts. You’ll find your own way to bash the fash, and comrade Jeb! will be proud of you the whole way

Document and then destroy their posters, stickers, and graffiti.

Educate yourself about the nature and tactics of fascism. Learn to identify them and when you find one, tell everyone what you see.

Learn from and listen to the communities they target.

Bingo

When I went to synagogue, whenever I saw a neo-Nazi sticker on any of the lamp posts nearby, I enjoyed keying the shit out of it.

i don’t think i would ever have the guts to punch a nazi. i only post about it to say it’s not wrong.

because even some people I know and respect are saying it’s wrong to fight hate with hate, when it’s not even mostly about hate… it’s something more practical than that.

The fact is, it ISN’T “hate” Nazis are spewing. It isn’t an attitude you could just sit down and change their mind about over a meal. It’s not “hate vs hate” it’s the fact you can’t even BEGIN to talk to them about them seeing you as a person, let alone be considered someone worth listening to and respecting your existence. Nazis see anything that don’t fit into their white supremacist beliefs as “factual” and “objective”, not hate. 

And when you can’t EVEN begin to find a way to change their mind, to let them know that what they think is WRONG on a moral and objective level, the only option is to SHAME them from expressing their views publicly and preventing others being emboldened enough to think it’s okay.

And if a public punch is what causes them to feel shamed from going back into public and advocating for the literal death of people like me and the people i love and care about, I’d gladly support all the Nazis being punched, and yelled at and humiliated enough to never feel safe about wanting the death of vulnerable people.

If you ever do decide to punch someone and don’t want to hurt your hand on hard face bones, go for the soft area right under the rib cage.

Unless you can knock someone out with a hit to the head, getting them in the solar plexus is your best bet. It’s also dramatic when they buckle and can’t breathe, which is your best opportunity to either hit them again, or run.

If you get them with a good jab on their back around the kidneys, they’ll be feeling it for days.

Or, of course, a good knee to the genitals. That works on any gender.

sources: [x][x]

You know, the Richard Spencer getting punched thing has made it VERY clear which groups of people I’m not actually safe around, if push comes to shove.  People who had SAID that they’d defend Jewish people, or even promised that, if shit hit the fan, they’d hide me, have said that this was inexcusable, and now I’m not wasting emotional energy on them.  Because they won’t.

If you think you’d have hidden Jews during the Holocaust, but think that punching Richard Spencer was “inexcusable,” then you’re kidding yourself.

I encourage everyone to reblog this!